Wang Meng: China's most decorated Olympic medalist expelled for brawl

Wang Meng, who has won five medals for China in recent Olympics, has been expelled from the short track speed skating team. Wang Meng reportedly attacked her manager in a confrontation after breaking curfew.

ByLOUISE WATT, Associated PressAugust 8, 2011

Wang Meng reacts after winning the gold medal for China in the women's 500-meter short track skating competition at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Feb. 17, 2010. Wang, China's most decorated Winter Olympic athlete, has been expelled from the country's short track speed skating team after a drunken brawl with her team manager.

China's most decorated Winter Olympic athlete has been expelled from the national team for a drunken brawl with an official, throwing the successful short track speed skating program into disarray.

Wang Meng went out drinking and failed to return to the team hotel before a curfew, China's sports governing body said in a statement released late Thursday. When she was confronted by the team manager WangChunlu, she punched her, it said.

The 26-year-old Wang was expelled from the national team and banned from international competitions because her conduct "has violated the team's disciplines and jeopardized the sport's image," China's General Administration of Sport said in the statement.

Wang, who won three golds at the Vancouver Games last year, and one gold, a silver and a bronze at Turin, Italy, in 2006, had been suspended since the incident during a summer training camp in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao on July 24.

It was unclear what she had been asked, but Wang was shown insisting that she be quoted verbatim on TV and threatening to hold a news conference if she wasn't quoted in full.

"Can you not report the voice from the heart of an ordinary person?" she said. "I am no longer an athlete. I have been expelled."

State-run broadcaster CCTV later showed Wang apologizing to reporters. "This event, in any case, has caused negative effects to society," she said. "I ought to apologize to the Chinese people. So many skating lovers like me and support me. What I did was wrong."

Wang is a product of China's highly competitive sports system where promising athletes are intensively trained from a young age in government-run sports schools.

Zhou Yang got in trouble last year for failing to thank her country and the Chinese government after her gold medal win at the Vancouver Olympics. Instead, she thanked her coach and teammates and said she would "help my parents have a better life."

"In one year, the Chinese short-track skating team, having performed so well and gained four Olympic medals and great success, has turned into a negative example. It definitely needs deep reflection," she said.

Xinhua said Wang is famous for her fiery temper and it is not the first time she has landed herself in trouble.

She was expelled from the national team for six months in 2007 after criticizing her coach's tactics at the Asian Winter Games, Xinhua said.

In June, Wang and her teammates reportedly clashed with security guards who accused them of making too much noise during a night out in the southwestern Chinese city of Lijiang. That incident led to the 10 p.m. curfew being imposed during last month's summer training camp.